Day: July 16, 2013

A gene called SALL4 encodes a zinc finger transcription factor protein that helps stem cells maintain their undifferentiated state and continue dividing. Cells tend to only express SALL4 during embryonic development, but in almost all cases of acute myeloid leukemia, and in 10-30% of liver, gastric, ovarian, endometrial, and breast cancers, SALL4 is re-expressed. This is solid evidence that SALL4 plays a central role in tumor formation.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI)-affiliated labs in Singapore and Boston have shown that knocking out the SALL4 gene in mouse tumors leads to a cessation of tumor growth. Additionally, designing small molecules that inhibit SALL4 activity also treat the cancer and cause cessation of tumor growth and shrinkage of the tumor.

“Our paper is about liver cancer, but it is likely true about lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, many, many cancers,” said HSCI Blood Diseases Program leader Daniel Tenen, who also directs a laboratory at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore). “SALL4 is a marker, so if we had a small molecule drug blocking SALL4 function, we could also predict which patients would be responsive.”

Studying the therapeutic potential of a transcription factor is unusual in the field of cancer research. Transcription factors are typically avoided because of the difficulty of developing drugs that safely interfere with genetic targets. Most cancer researchers focus their attention on kinases (enzymes that attach phosphate groups to other molecules).

However, inquiry into the basic biology of the SALL4 gene by HSCI researchers has shown that there is another way to interfere with its activity in cancer cells. The SALL4 protein turns off a tumor suppressor gene, and this causes the cell to divide uncontrollably. By targeting the SALL4 protein with synthetic molecules that inhibit its activity, they could halt the growth of the tumors.

“The pharmaceutical companies decided that if it is not a kinase, and it is not a cell surface molecule, then it is ‘undruggable,'” said Tenen. “To me, if you say anything in ‘undoable,’ you are limiting yourself as a biomedical scientist.”

Earlier this year, Tenen’s co-author, HSCI-affiliated faculty member Li Chau, assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, published a report that synthetic SALL4 inhibitors have treatment potential in leukemia cells.

Chai took blood samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia, and treated the leukemia cells with this synthetic inhibitor and then transplanted that blood back into the leukemic mice. The cancer showed gradual regression.

“I am excited about being on the front line of this new drug development,” said Chai. “As a physician-scientist, if I can find a new class of drug that has very low toxicity to normal tissues, my patients can have a better quality of life.”

Chai and Tenen are working with HSCI Executive Committee member Lee Rubin from the Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Biology, and James Bradner from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (another HSCI-affiliated faculty member), to help them with the drug development part of their project. Demonstrating the potential of SALL4-interfering compounds is labor intensive, but might also be efficacious for the treatment of other cancers.

“I think as academics, we seek to engage drug companies because they can do these types of things better than we can,” said Tenen. “But, also as an academic, I want to go after the important biologic targets that are not being sought after by the typical drug company – because if we do not, who will?”